Gore–McLemore resolutions
However, in practice, the US was more sympathetic to the Allied cause, as the US maintained economic ties to the Entente powers (particularly the United Kingdom) through loans and the munitions trade.
[3] In response, the German Empire declared the waters surrounding the British Isles a war zone and adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare that placed neutral passenger and merchant vessels in danger of U-boat attacks.
[4] Despite Wilson’s efforts for compromise and peace, by the end of 1915, it appeared that war was imminent if Americans continued to lose their lives from German U-boat attacks on Allied merchant ships.
[6] Like other Senators at the time, Gore was concerned that further loss of American life to German submarine attacks would force the US to sever diplomatic relations with Germany, the first step to declaring war.
The combination of the German declaration and Lansing's response that provoked a significant Congressional reaction with a flurry of bills and resolutions, among which were those of Senator Gore and Representative Atkins Jefferson McLemore of Texas.
[6] At the meeting, President Wilson seemed determined to support the right of Americans to travel aboard armed merchant vessels, declaring that he would sever diplomatic relations with the Central Powers if Germany continued to sink merchant vessels to the loss of American lives and insisting that Congress stop interfering in the diplomatic controversy.
In this letter, which was later publicized, Wilson argued that "many other humiliations would certainly follow" if Americans were prevented from travelling freely, and that "[America] cannot yield then without conceding her own impotency as a nation.
"[7] The next day, President Wilson clandestinely met with House leadership at the so-called "Sunrise Conference" and further declared that he would not accept an erosion of America's sovereign rights.
President Wilson told his audience that the resolution of the German submarine controversy relied on the American people "standing behind the Executive".
[6] By this point, the mood in Congress had shifted back in favor of President Wilson, though Senator Gore remained steadfast in his anti-war views.
Anti-war Democrats in the House took the initiative and requested that the President warn all US citizens to refrain from travel on armed merchant vessels through Representative A. Jefferson McLemore's resolution H. Res.
However, President Wilson wanted to demonstrate that he had the support of Congress to foreign powers (such as Germany) who otherwise might have used the apparent disunity against the US in future diplomatic negotiations.
"[6] Gore was unknowingly referring to the "Sunrise Conference", and his statement was actually a fairly accurate account of the meeting, though the implication that Wilson wanted war was strenuously denied by other members of Congress.
